Collaborative Research: CubeSat: A U.S. CubeSat Constellation for the QB50 Mission (QBUS)

合作研究：CubeSat：用于 QB50 任务 (QBUS) 的美国 CubeSat 星座

• 批准号: 1242865
• 负责人: Hien Vo
• 金额: $ 13.63万
• 依托单位: Universidad Del Turabo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-01 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1242865&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; CubeSat; U.S.; Constellation

This project by a consortium of six institutions describes an initiative, named QBUS, to participate in the international QB50 cubesat network.QB50 is an international network of 50 CubeSats for multi-point, in-situ measurements in the largely unexplored lower thermosphere. Led by the Von Karman Institute (VKI) of Belgium, the QB50 project is predominantly funded from a FP7 Grant by the European Union (EU) and includes international participation from more than 30 countries. The idea behind the project is that the EU grant will supply the science instruments and a joint launch for all 50 satellites, which will be provided by participating teams that will secure their own independent funding for CubSat production and ground station operation. The plan for QB50 is that all 50 CubeSats will be launched together in 2015-2016 on a Shtil-2.1 from Murmansk in northern Russia into a circular orbit at 320 km altitude, inclination 79º. Due to atmospheric drag, the orbits will decay and the CubeSats will be able to explore all layers of the lower thermosphere without the need for on-board propulsion, down to 90 or 100 km, depending on the quality of their thermal design. It is expected that the network will spread around the Earth (in a single orbit plane) providing a range of spacing and temporal revisit times. The lifetime of the CubeSats from deployment until atmosphere re-entry will be less than three months. Each QB50 satellite is required to carry one of three standardized sensor packages: a plasma package, a neutral package or a composition package. The plasma package is based on a miniaturized Langmuir probe providing plasma density, the neutral package measures the atomic and molecular Oxygen density, and the composition package is an Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS).The partners of the QBUS consortium (3 research universities, one Hispanic minority undergraduate university, and 2 national laboratories) all have significant CubeSat and Ionosphere-Thermosphere (IT) science experience. The QBUS team will build 4 identical 2U CubeSat flight units based on a joint design, with participating members providing various components of the usual satellite functions (attitude determination and control, uplink and downlink telecommunications, power subsystem including a battery and body-mounted solar cells, on-board data handling and storage by a CPU). Of the three available options, the QBUS team has been approved by the QB50 project to fly the INMS sensor built by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL). This instrument will measure atmospheric composition via abundance determination of neutral atomic O, molecular O2 and N2. QBUS as part of QB50 offers a unique opportunity for dense and distributed in-situ measurements of the most poorly characterized state parameter: neutral and ion composition from 100-320 km. The project will use measurements from QBUS, QB50, and complementary ground-based observations to characterize and understand how compositional changes are created by energy inputs, propagated and ultimately equilibrated within the IT system. Specifically, it will be possible, for the first time, to quantify the effect of composition changes (primarily O/N2) on electron density changes across temporal scales (minutes to months) and spatial scales (10-s km to global).The project constitutes a particularly creative and cost-effective approach. The multi-university and national Laboratory solution proposed entails partners sharing and leading by their specific strengths. Efficiency of numbers and division of labor by experience will result in tremendous program costs savings. In addition, QBUS constitutes substantial leveraging on the international QB50 project. As a result of U.S. funded participation in QB50 the entire U.S. science community will have the opportunity to access the full constellation dataset from QB50. The QB50/QBUS program also serves as impetus for unprecedented coordination between NSF-sponsored facilities and instruments for in-situ and ground based campaigns to enable IT discovery. The project has tremendous educational impacts. It will directly support the training of the next generation of instrument engineers and geoscientists at 4 universities (one of which is minority serving) in the consortium, expecting to provide around 200 students hands-on involvement in the development, testing and operations of the QBUS CubeSats. It will facilitate additional student participation across the United States and internationally through use of derived data products from the entire QB50 mission.

这个由六个机构组成的联盟的项目描述了一项名为QBUS的倡议，以参与国际QB50立方体卫星网络。QB50是一个由50颗立方体卫星组成的国际网络，用于在基本上未被探索的较低热层进行多点、现场测量。QB50项目由比利时冯·卡曼研究所(VKI)牵头，主要资金来自欧盟(EU)的FP7赠款，包括来自30多个国家的国际参与。该项目背后的想法是，欧盟的赠款将为所有50颗卫星提供科学仪器和联合发射，这些仪器将由参与团队提供，这些团队将确保自己为CubSat的生产和地面站运营提供独立资金。QB50的计划是，所有50颗立方体卫星将在2015-2016年间乘坐Shtil-2.1从俄罗斯北部的摩尔曼斯克发射升空，进入高度320公里、倾角79°的圆形轨道。由于大气阻力，轨道将衰减，立方体卫星将能够探测较低热层的所有层，而不需要机载推进，最低可达90或100公里，这取决于它们的热设计质量。预计该网络将分布在地球周围(在单一轨道平面上)，提供一系列的间隔和时间重访时间。立方体卫星从部署到重返大气层的寿命将不到三个月。每颗QB50卫星都需要携带三种标准化传感器包中的一种：等离子体包、中性包或合成包。等离子体包基于提供等离子体密度的微型朗缪尔探头，中性包测量原子和分子氧密度，组成包是离子中性质谱仪(INMS)。QBUS联盟的合作伙伴(3所研究型大学、1所西班牙裔少数族裔大学和2个国家实验室)都具有丰富的立方体卫星和电离层-热层(IT)科学经验。QBUS团队将在联合设计的基础上建造4个相同的2U立方体卫星飞行单元，参与成员将提供常见卫星功能(姿态确定和控制、上行和下行通信、包括电池和车身安装的太阳能电池的电源子系统、由CPU进行的星载数据处理和存储)的各种组件。在三个可用选项中，QBUS团队已获得QB50项目的批准，可以飞行穆拉德空间科学实验室(MSSL)制造的INMS传感器。这台仪器将通过测定中性原子O、分子O2和N2的丰度来测量大气成分。作为QB50的一部分，QBUS提供了一个独特的机会，可以对表征最差的状态参数：100-320公里范围内的中性和离子成分进行密集和分散的现场测量。该项目将使用QBUS、QB50和互补的地面观测的测量结果来描述和了解组成变化是如何通过能量输入创建、传播并最终在IT系统中平衡的。具体地说，将有可能首次量化成分变化(主要是O/N_2)对时间尺度(几分钟到几个月)和空间尺度(10-S公里到全球)电子密度变化的影响。该项目是一种特别有创造性和成本效益的方法。建议的多所大学和国家实验室解决方案需要合作伙伴分享和领导他们的具体优势。数字的效率和经验的分工将带来巨大的项目成本节约。此外，QBUS对国际QB50项目构成了相当大的杠杆作用。由于美国资助了QB50的参与，整个美国科学界将有机会访问QB50的完整星座数据集。QB50/QBUS计划还推动了NSF赞助的用于现场和地面活动的设施和工具之间前所未有的协调，以实现IT发现。该项目具有巨大的教育影响。它将直接支持该联盟中4所大学(其中一所是少数族裔服务大学)的下一代仪器工程师和地球科学家的培训，预计将为大约200名学生提供实际参与QBUS立方体卫星的开发、测试和操作。它将通过使用来自整个QB50任务的派生数据产品，促进美国和国际上更多的学生参与。